djassi daCosta johnson

djassi daCosta johnson is a native New Yorker, classically trained modern dancer, choreographer, photographer, filmmaker, designer, writer, Doula, and mother. Djassi received her B.A. in Anthropology and English from Barnard College and was a fellowship student at Alvin Ailey for seven years. She obtained her M.F.A. in Dance & New Media/Technology from NYU Tisch in 2018 as a Dean’s fellow. She has apprenticed, performed, and toured with Dance Brazil, Earl Mosley, Bill T. Jones, Hernando Cortez, Urban Bush Women, and Forces of Nature, and was a soloist with MOMIX.

After over a decade of touring in concert dance, Djassi lived abroad as a dancer and choreographer in Brazil and then in Italy for almost a decade. Djassi writes in English, Italian, and Portuguese about dance, culture, and women’s issues with a highlight on artists of color. She has written for KINFOLK, {DIYdancer}, Harvard Design Magazine, VIBE, TRACE and Playbill among others. Most recently, she has penned scripts for dance films and promotional videos with Nel Shelby Productions for Dance Theater of Harlem and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

As a performance artist, she collaborates with jazz musicians and visual artists and for festivals such as PERFORMA and Vision Fest (NYC). She has been commissioned by the Brooklyn Museum four times, including a performance in collaboration with Alice Walker for the release of her book Taking The Arrow Out Of The Heart in 2019.

Her storytelling — through movement, words, images, and on film — sprouts from her anthropological foundation and dance roots in NYC. Her film work and photography have been displayed at festivals internationally and most recently she presented her dance on film collaborations and photography at Photoville in NYC, Shedhalle in Zurich, and The National Museum of Women in Washington, DC. Her latest film, “GAIA & LUNA: a mermaid dream journey” was screened at the environmental film festival, Cinema Verde in February of 2023, winning the “Most Uplifting” Award. Her photography and film work is on exhibition at MoCaDa Museum, in the group show M’Dear: Celebrating the Black Maternal. Most recently Djassi’s choreography has been featured at Book Launch series for the publishing company Kweli. In June 2023, she was commissioned to choreograph a piece for the opening dedication ceremony at the International African American Museum (IAAM) in Charleston, SC, and has performed and choreographed for NYFW 2023 & 2024 for the sustainable fashion line Studio189.

Djassi has mentored for the national writing program, Girls Write Now for three years and, most recently, was an Assistant Professor of Dance at The University of Virgin Islands from 2020-2022 where she started the first Dance Performance BFA while teaching Ballet, Humanities, and Theater. She is based in Brooklyn and is a Spring 2024 Artist in Residence at the Barnard Movement Lab.